Wednesday, June 04, 2008

4 June 2008 Dearborn County Redevelopment Commission Meeting Notes

Present: John Rahe, Chairman, Jim Helms, John Maxwell (arrived at 6:30).Mike Rozow, potential new member Kevin Lynch from Greendale (replacing Abdon) who has to be appointed by Commissioners and Richard Butler, Attorney were also present.

1. Meeting minutes were approved.

2. Rozow gave a report on year to date financials.

3. Butler administered the oath of office to new member, Jim Helms.

4. The 2009 proposed budget- similar to the 2008 budget- was approved.

5. Rozow announced that he will be attending CDFA TIF seminar in Washington DC , paid for by DCEDI funds. He stated he wanted to understand more about TIFs and their ramifications.

6. Rozow and Rahe discussed new business development. Rozow said he was addressing perceptions like: We are a 3- day train ride from Cincinnati. Do we have an inventory of housing? Do you have any sit-down restaurants?

Rozow thinks we haven’t really branded Dearborn County. They are using some of the tourism ads to reposition the county. (Example- Night and day the perfect place to play and only 30 minutes away.)

They plan to update the inventory on the DCEDI site. We need to be able to accept all sorts of businesses- but Rozow stressed that we will turn down a business if it isn’t right for the county.

Rahe asked if Jim Kinnett has facts and figures on why someone should build their business here rather than in N KY. Rozow said they have to figure out the right studies to do.

Rahe said- he wasn’t asking for a study. Just get the facts we need.

[NOTE: One statistic set could be the number of businesses we have in the county. How many have closed in the last few years- with a list of their names and products or services. Another nmight be how many businesses IN THE COUNTY are thinking of expanding. Maybe by helping them grow we will be perceived as business friendly. That perception may draw more. And so on.]

Kevin Lynch said he works for US Bank in Cincinnati and said some of the Greendale Commission had recently gone to Las Vegas. (It was unclear exactly what the trip to Las Vegas was about) They apparently were trying to get Greendale noticed for business. They were learning about what business might consider.

Butler told the group about the state park concept for Greendale (and the county.) For more info see the Tuesday Journal Press this week. They will be looking for 4 MILLION from the county. This amenity would be good for development per Lynch.Rahe talked about Sunday paper with Western Southern agreeing to a TIF but also paying the school tax.

Butler noted that of 297 districts in the state, only 2 spent more per capita than Lawrenceburg. He didn’t think TIFs in Lawrenceburg had to worry about the school finances.

3 comments:

Jim Helms is on the Dearborn County Chamber of Commerce, the DCEDI, and now the Dearborn County Redevelopment Commission. His prime qualification for any of these positions is political influence. He has little business experience. If this county is to "move forward" the politcal hacks need to be pushed aside.

IT is becomming more and more difficult to shove aside our undereducated self seeking politicians aside given two things:1. The Blog has been crippled by an enterprising, county line to county line asphalt devotee, who is afraid to identify himself

2. Register Publications seems to be converting it's editorial page into something resembling cards of thanks and calssified. The editor seemingly will publish anything critical of the DCDEI of which he is a member, or critical of the two Commish handmaidens of the C of C and the DCDEI as he is in seeing Fox and Hughes defeated in the November election.

Think of Messmore's inexcusable "mistake" in quoting Indiana Code. The newspaper will not correct this and will not publish letters correctly quoting the Indiana Code in regard to Police offiers presence at Commish meeting.

Anything goes from here on. The taxpayers are the ticket to no risk wealth schemes for the poltical class of Dearborn County.

It is going to be difficult to get out the word that the North West Quadrant is in the cross hairs of the rich and powerful. IT is going to be difficult to explain once again the evils of TIFs. IT is going to be difficult to restrain subdivision development which will flood our schools, and overwhelm the police and fire departments

Lastly our elected officials appoint to important committees OUT OF STATE people, such as an insurance salesman from Cincinnati to the Sewer board. Why?

Why do we want to BRAND our county? Are we for sale? It seems to me we are always looking to make a buck anymore and not looking at what we are or want to be. And by WE I mean the people who live here, not the DCEDI board and their backers.Branding ourselves as a perfect place to play or fun not far or having rural atmosphere or as a gambling mecca may be hard to sell to a public that has been oversold and overhyped. How do you trust what you hear in ads? Look at Argosy ads and then go there. Do they even LOOK the same?Maybe we need to get REAL.